ABSTRACT

I embark on the subject of discrimination with considerable trepidation, since it is so charged with emotion that the most innocent and objective observations lead to accusations of prejudice and bigotry. For the same reason, there is no area in which statistics are more widely misused and misinterpreted. I happen to believe that a good cause deserves good statistics and am put off by being lied to or by having my intelligence insulted, even for a good cause.